The manager's mindset

Two new managers recently told me the same thing: they don't feel as if they are actually DOING anything any more! Because they were used to be the person who did the tasks to accomplish the objective, they felt strange now because the people reporting to them were doing the work.

This, my friend, is the management difference! Your responsibility is to accomplish the objective through the work of others. Now that you are a manager, you need to spend more time thinking and planning. You need to plan schedules, systems, new ways of doing things, reporting to those above you, tracking results and many more aspects of the work. That now becomes your work. If things are not going as well as you would like, you need to plan changes. If things are going well, you need to plan how to expand or do even better. This is the work of a manager, a management skill.

If things are breaking down, you may need to use your people skills to correct the problems. Managing people is one of the most challenging aspects of management --- after all, you can't accomplish your objective if your people don't do their work well, and it's your job to get them back on track.

Whatever you do, don't give in to the temptation to do the work for them just because that's your comfort zone. It's their job now. Your job is to lead the people and manage the process.